Hydrothermal treatment of rice straw for carbohydrate production

 This study focused on the effect of hydrothermal (HT) treatment at 180 – 210 °C for holding 0 - 15 min on the solubilization of rice straw and the changes of HT residue. The optimum treatment conditions for the highest solubilization and solid reduction of rice straw was 210 °C for holding 0 min. Under this condition, the extraction yield and total organic carbon (TOC) concentration of the HT liquid part were the highest, about 44% and 7850 mg/L, respectively. The dry residue showed that the HT conditions above 200 °C for holding a short time were more efficient, which was confirmed by FT-IR and the changes of surface morphology under microscope. The reactor headspace could be an important factor because HT treatment with a lower headspace (HTp210-0(15)) yielded more soluble carbohydrate under the test conditions. Also, energy input calculated based on the 1 ton removed hemicellulose (extraction yield) in the headspace experiments proved this finding.